When we bought our Spanish Revival home in the older Land Park neighborhood of Sacramento—a home that hadn’t been updated in nearly 70 years!—we knew we wanted to stay true to the home’s traditional Spanish bones while giving it a modern, fun refresh that could accommodate our young family of five. We have three boys, so we focused on adding enough open space throughout the home for serious super hero battles and comfortable, affordable furniture that looks great but can easily withstand the daily wear and tear of our wily crew.

We repurposed many of the home’s original materials (we painted metal windows and the iron staircase black, exposed the original brick detailing, embellished the exterior bell to draw attention to its beauty, opened up the dining room doug fir ceiling, etc.) while modernizing the place by way of adding a new and open kitchen, adding a spacious master bath with a soaking tub, using white paint throughout for a light, airy vibe and adding outdoor amenities including a pool, fire pit, and wood-burning pizza oven to extend our usable living space and take advantage of the 300 days of California sunshine we get.

Our ultimate goal was to create a space that was welcoming and comfortable and somewhere that friends and family would want to come to often (Spoiler Alert: They never leave.)

What is your favorite room and why? We consider outdoor spaces additional “rooms” in our house since we use them just as much as indoor spaces, so I’d have to pick our fire pit area. It is a natural extension of our dining room, and with big sliders that stay open most evenings, the fire pit naturally lends itself to lounging in the chairs around the fire with a good glass of wine post-dinner while the kids put their feet in the Spanish-tiled fountain and run out the last bit of energy they always seem to have!

Any advice for creating a home you love? Before you start, ask yourself how you spend most of your time at home and then put your money toward making those spaces swoon worthy. I love to cook and spend a lot of time in the kitchen so it was important for me to create an open space where kids can easily play within my line of sight or jump up on the barstools and cook with me. They’ve become awesome sous chefs. Also, in the priority rooms that you identify, splurge on a patterned material or furniture item that will make the room pop. For us, the Spanish cement tile on our island was just the right amount of space to take a bit of risk on as well as splurge, and it really makes the room stand out.

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Sponsors for Needed Phoebe’s Pageant Fund

Phoebe was invited and attended an open call for National American Miss on May 18th. After being interview by the committee she was chosen as one of New Jersey's state finalist. Our next step for Phoebe to proceed is attaining sponsors. As we all know times are tough however, she would appreciate any amount you would be able to contribute. Phoebe is very excited to represent her state in August. The pageant goals are for her to gain poise and self-confidence, practice speaking in front of a live audience, and become actively involved in her community. All donations are tax deductible for businesses as an advertising expense. All sponsors will be listed in the state year book. Thank you for your time whether you chose to sponsor or not. The Armstead Family Help spread the word!